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The MMQB's Greg Bedard believes Texas A&M redshirt sophomore QB Johnny Manziel has the skills to succeed in the pocket.

"Manziel remains tranquil in the midst of a driving storm," Bedard writes. "He never looks at the rush, his eyes are always downfield; he has a tremendous feel for what’s going on around him; and he doesn’t bolt from the pocket unless he has to. Manziel is a pocket passer. And yet, he’s probably at his best when he’s on the move." It is safe to say Manziel has improved as a passer this season, showing more poise to find lanes with subtle movements rather than large steps in the pocket. His velocity has also improved, which was obvious against Alabama. Still, we believe shorter quarterbacks must be able to throw from multiple platforms and angles, and we will keep watching Manziel in the hopes of finding this. Either way, he fits what the NFL is looking for, but it is too early to predict where he will be drafted.

"I feel like we kind of overlooked them a little bit at first. It was a wake-up call upfront that said ‘hey, you got to bring it. These guys are playing. It’s SEC ball now," Allen said of Kentucky's offensive line. Allen notched a sack in that game, but this is extremely high praise from the highly touted defensive lineman. Kentucky center Jon Toth is on his way to the Senior Bowl.

Houston named offensive coordinator Major Applewhite the school's next head coach.

It is a direct promotion for Tom Herman's offensive coordinator since 2015. Applewhite has strong ties to Texas, after playing for the Longhorns and spending most of his career in the state with stints at Syracuse and Alabama. Applewhite has zero head coaching experience. As you know, it was previously reported by Dan Wolken that Lane Kiffin would likely be named coach, but Applewhite is more likely to stay at houston long term.

Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell is negotiating with Cincinnati to become the school's next head coach, according to Russell Johnson of Rivals.

Fickell took over as Ohio State's interim head coach in 2011 after Jim Tressel was fired and before Urban Meyer was hired. For recruiting purposes, Fickell certainly knows the area well after spending his entire coaching career in the state. There is no timetable for an announcement at this time, according to Johnson.

Alabama HC Nick Saban prefers for OC Lane Kiffin to remain with the team through the College Football Playoffs.

Kiffin is reportedly close to being named head coach of Houston. "We're very supportive of Lane in terms of him having an opportunity to be a head coach again after the great job that he did for us," Saban said. "So hopefully [the Houston job] or some other opportunity will work out well for him so he gets the opportunity to be a head coach again." Asked if Kiffin would be with the Tide on Dec. 31 for the Peach Bowl against Washington, Saban said: "I think he'll want to finish the season with us but I can't speak to that right now because we haven't discussed something that is a hypothetical situation to this point. And I'm not going to answer any more questions about hypothetical situations." If the reports are true, we should know of Kiffin's future plans in the next day or two.

We like the fit. The Panthers prefer pro-style quarterbacks and will have an opening under center next year following Nathan Peterman's graduation. Browne was the nation's No. 1 pro-style passer in 2013, per the 247Sports Composite rankings. Last week, Browne announced that he won't stay with the Trojans through their bowl game. Instead, he's turned his attention to the transfer process, which became inevitable after he lost his job to Sam Darnold after three games. A graduate transfer, Browne is eligible to play immediately wherever he winds up.

ESPN's Brett McMurphy passes along that NCAA president Mark Emmert's preference is for an eight-team Playoff.

Emmert would like to see an expanded Playoff in order to allow for all five Power 5 conference champions to be included in the field. Penn State, who won the Big Ten title with a thrilling victory over Wisconsin this past weekend, was left out of the Playoff proceedings in favor of Pac-12 champ Washington on Sunday. Whether Emmert's desire for an expanded Playoff actually leads to an expanded Playoff remains to be seen. The size of the field figures to be discussed in more substantive depth this offseason.

Multiple outlets are reporting that USF has entered negotiations with former Texas HC Charlie Strong to fill their vacant head-coaching position.

With Willie Taggart off to Oregon earlier this week, South Florida has been quick to move forward in their coaching search. Roy Cummings of Florida Football Insiders writes that the Bulls have "zeroed in" on Strong, who was fired by Texas at the end of the season following a 5-7 campaign. Cummings relays that Strong and USF could reach agreement by this weekend.

Former Baylor HC Art Briles is suing three school regents and a vice president for libel.

Per the Associated Press report, Briles is "accusing [the associated parties] of falsely stating he knew of reported assaults and alleged gang rapes by players and didn't report them." In addition, his lawsuit alleges that Baylor officials conspired to prevent him from landing another head-coaching job. The university has yet to issue comment on this lawsuit. Briles was terminated in May as part of an organizational shakeup in response to the school's sexual assault scandal.

Multiple outlets are reporting that Western Michigan and HC P.J. Fleck are nearing agreement on a contract extension.

Contract terms are not yet known, but the Detroit News' Tony Paul hears that he will receive a raise from the $800,000 he is currently making annually. Fleck rowed the Broncos out to a 13-0 record this season and was considered a hot candidate for the coaching carousel, but it appears at this juncture that he will back at Western Michigan come the start of the 2017 season.

Texas A&M junior edge rusher Myles Garrett said that he will not make a decision on the 2017 NFL Draft until after the Texas Bowl.

Texas A&M will be tangoing with Kansas State in the Texas Bowl on December 28, after which Garrett will make his final decision. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound junior told ESPN that the deciding criteria, here, is heavily dependent on his potential landing spot in the draft, saying, "I want to go top three." In a 2016 campaign that has been marred somewhat by ankle woes (he missed three games), Garrett recorded 32 tackles (15.0 for loss), 8.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

At the introductory press conference for new HC Willie Taggart, Oregon president Michael Schill told him to "go out and find a great defensive coordinator."

Current DC Brady Hoke can't be feeling too comfortable right about now. While Hoke still technically remains on staff following the Ducks' firing of Mark Helfrich, he might not be for long. After turning in a 2015 season the defensive equivalent of a derailed train under then-DC Don Pellum, Oregon turned to former Michigan HC Brady Hoke over the winter. Matters failed to improve much under Hoke's watch. In 2016, Oregon's ranked as the third-worst scoring defense in the country, surrendering 41.42 points on average. Only fellow wet paper towels Cal and Texas Tech were worse in that statistical category.